Youth Baseball Coaching – What's Your First Priority?

My time
spent in youth baseball coaching is some of the best times of my life. With
very few exceptions every minute I spent with the kids and their parents was
enjoyable and rewarding.

And the few
times I did run into a bump in the road they were not big jarring bumps.
Somehow I was lucky and had very few problems with moms and dads.

Just
recently a friend of mine was telling me about problems he is having with his
eight year old machine pitch team. He is a good friend and I have been to a few
of his practices and games.

After a
recent game one of his assistant coaches was very upset and gave him a call.
His son had played right field for a couple of innings, and then sat out for
the rest of the game.

That made
two games in a row that his son had sat out for half the game. He was not
happy with my friend's youth baseball coaching.

Playing Time Based on Performance

My friend
explained to him that playing time was based upon performance, and his son was
lacking in his fielding abilities.

Of course this
just put the dad over the top. Things
went from bad to worst and I could go on with this story, but let’s just say
the rest of the season is not going to be fun.

There are a
couple of red flags that pop up right away with this story. And there are even
more red flags since I’m close to the situation. This was not an example of youth baseball coaching at it's best.

First,
eight year old machine pitch teams should not be playing kids based on ability.
You would probably bat your better hitters near the top of the batting order, but
to sit out the same kids game after game is wrong.

Here’s the
behind the scenes happenings that I know about.

My friend
started out the season with good intentions. The first few games he was giving
every player equal playing time, and rotating the fielding positions.

Then
something happened that causes lots of problems for youth baseball coaching,
his team started losing.

His
Team was Losing Games

My friend’s
team was losing to teams that he felt were not as good as his team. And his
belief was that the other teams were only playing there good players in key
fielding positions.

His
conviction to equal playing time was now wavering. He started the season with
player development as the number one priority, but losing was tough to stomach.

After a
couple of close losses he had enough. Without informing anyone, he changed his
priority to winning.

When coaching youth baseball, sticking to
player development is a tough thing to do. His justification for giving it up
was that his players hated losing.

What the
players really hated was their coach after losses. He had lost his upbeat
approach and had become the yelling, negative type coach.

And of
course this led to parent problems, like the one described above.

There will
come an age when playing time is based on ability. No doubt that will happen in
high school baseball.

And I’m
sure 13 and 14 year old competitive teams base there playing time on
performance. But an eight year old machine pitch team should not be using
playing ability as the basis for playing time.

I had this
discussion with my friend and told him I felt it was wrong what he was doing.
He justified his strategy by saying every team should do what thy can to win
games.

Ugly Idea of Win at All Cost

And that is
the root of many problems with little league baseball. The ugly idea of win at
all cost seeps its way into youth baseball coaching.

Like my
friend, many coaches start the season with good intentions. But once they lose
a few games their good intentions go out the window.

Try not to
be that guy. I know it is a hard thing to do, losing games that you know you
could have won. But remember that player development (all players) is your
number one priority.